Tag: Richard Grenell

Mr. Kurz vaulted to power in Austria in late 2017 with an anti-immigration message that challenged Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, after her country took in thousands of refugees who streamed across southern Europe from Syria and other war-torn Middle Eastern nations. He is a “rock star,” said Richard A. Grenell, the United States ambassador to Germany, who invited Mr. Kurz to lunch in Berlin. On Wednesday, Mr. Trump granted Mr. Kurz a one-on-one meeting and an expanded session with his senior aides — the kind of attention that leaders of smaller countries almost never get, save for the prime minister of Ireland around St. Patrick’s Day. “He’s a very young leader, I have to tell you,” Mr. Trump said, turning to his guest. Mr. Trump and Mr. Kurz later discussed trade tensions between the United States and Europe, as the White House nears a decision to impose tariffs on German automobiles. Mr. Trump’s decision to meet with him was mostly about what Mr. Kurz symbolizes in a Europe with which the president has had an increasingly antagonistic relationship. “For better or for worse, he is the chancellor of a German-speaking country that is in a coalition with the hard right,” said Constanze Stelzenmüller, an expert on Europe at the Brookings Institution. Mr. Kurz is not the first young European leader to beguile Mr. Trump. And the United States recently held a summit meeting on the Middle East in Warsaw — a reward for Poland’s right-wing government, which has sought close ties to Mr. Trump. “The Warsaw summit showed in brutal clarity the internal contradictions of U.S. policy towards the right in Europe.

The Trump administration is starting a campaign to end the global criminalization of homosexuality in countries where it is illegal to be gay. The initiative is being spearheaded by Richard Grenell, the U.S. Ambassador to Germany and the highest-profile openly…

“There are a lot of conservatives throughout Europe who have contacted me to say they are feeling there is a resurgence going on,” ambassador Richard Grenell told the far-right publication Breitbart. As Slovenia became the latest European democracy to elevate a politician espousing a populist form of conservatism, Mr Grenell said he wanted to “empower other conservatives throughout Europe”. “I think there is a groundswell of conservative policies that are taking hold because of the failed policies of the left,” Mr Grenell said. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut senator who sits on the Foreign Relations Committee, tweeted that he found Mr Grenell’s Breitbart interview “awful” to read. “When I raised concerns to Grenell about politicising this post, he personally assured me that once he became Ambassador he would stay out of politics,” he said. “Ambassadors aren’t supposed to ‘empower’ any political party overseas.” An anti-establishment message intertwined with hostility to immigration helped propel Mr Trump to victory – themes that have reverberated through a string of European elections. Mr Grenell cited that precedent as helping to inform his mandate. He offered praise for Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz, calling him a “rock star”. The news organisation that ran the exclusive interview with Mr Grenell has itself helped to nourish the same political forces the ambassador said he would cultivate. Breitbart became a force in American politics through its rejection of mainstream Republicans and its focus on illegal immigration.

Grenell, whose nomination had been in limbo since last year, was confirmed in a vote of 56 to 42, a day before German chancellor Angela Merkel is due to arrive in Washington for a much-anticipated visit with Trump. The Berlin post had been vacant for 15 months – the longest such period in postwar German history – amid opposition from Democrats to Grenell’s often controversial remarks on Twitter. Grenell’s confirmation made him the first openly gay appointee of the Trump administration. They say opposites attract … but nobody told Trump and Merkel Read more An often polarizing figure, Grenell has a history of sparring with reporters on Twitter and has come under scrutiny for making derogatory comments about prominent women. In tweets he later deleted, Grenell stated that MSNBC host Rachel Maddow “needs to take a breath and put on a necklace” and suggested former first lady Michelle Obama, a fitness devotee, was “sweating on the East Room carpet”. Grenell also criticized the appearances of Hillary Clinton and Callista Gingrich. In recent months he has frequently used his Twitter account to comment on German affairs – most recently admonishing the country for not joining American, British and French forces in airstrikes on Syria earlier this month. Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) French and British forces join the U.S. in striking Syria for a heinous chemical weapons attack on civilians. Germany should have joined this P3 group, too. I think we can be confident that [Grenell] can communicate Trump’s position to the Germans.